Are These the Two Greatest Bourgognes in Burgundy? One of the Smallest Producers in Burgundy

For those of you who have not read my recent blog post "God, Science and Sweat: The Three Ways to Make Wine," I encourage you to give it a perusal.  The basic point is that it is possible for great winemakers, through incredibly hard work, to make stunning, even world class wines, in humble

appellations.  I have always known this, but I've never seen anyone make wine this good from ordinary terroir.  How do they do this?

 - The total production of this winery is a microscopic 2,000 bottles (they earn  a living from their adjacent hotel, not from winemaking).
 - Yields are cut back to 28 hl/ha for the first wine and approximately 15 hl/ha for the second.  
 - As a basis for comparison, the average yield for this area is 68 hl/ha.
 - Legendary winemaker Lalou Bize-Leroy's famously low yields are 16 hl/ha (most of her wines are a thousand dollars and up).
 - What low yields do is add incredible concentration of flavor and texture to the wines.
 - These wines are made as if they were from Premier Cru and Grand Cru vineyards.  And it shows.

Now I love the wines of Jean-Marc Roulot, and his Bourgogne Blanc is considered by many to be the best in Burgundy.  But as great as his wines are (and they are stunningly great) Jean-Marc can't afford to make 2,000 bottles of wine each year and personally slave over every vine and every bunch of grapes.  As great as Roulot's Bourgogne Blanc is, I think that this first wine may be better (and it's about half the cost). It is stylistically different. More depth, sap, power and concentration.

The first wine is the 2011 Domaine Berlancourt Bourgogne "Cuvee Equinces" for as little as $23.99 on a 4-pack.  This wine is elegant, powerful and concentrated. There is terrific purity, sap and strength, like you are drinking from a grand appellation. The farming is all organic and that reflects in just the dazzling freshness and purity of the wine. Perfectly integrated oak and drinking wonderfully after a serious decant and breathing.  I can see this benefiting from age tremendously, as the floral, mineral and rich finish does not quit. The length of this wine is astounding. I think it will get better over the next 3-5 years and hang on for 2-3 more. Truly a remarkable wine.  The vines are located in Puligny-Montrachet but is appellation Bourgogne.  Pierre is treating his plots like Folatieres, Pucelles and not just Bourgogne and the results are astonishing.  I have a decent amount of this. Buy as much as you can and store it  I'm not kidding.  2012 (small harvest) is already sold out and 2013 has not been released yet, but there will be very little because of hail.  I'm not sure when we'll see more wines from this winery.

I also have a very small amount of what is equivalent to their Grand Cru, the 2011 Domaine Berlancourt Bourgogne "Cuvee Les Champans, for as little as $59.99 a bottle for the 2-pack. I have never encountered a wine quite like this in my career. Almost 20 years now. Blind, I would guess Grand Cru Chevalier Monthrachet or Puligny 1er Cru "Folatieres.".  It is from yields of around 15hl/ha and aged in 100% new oak for 3 years. I cracked this upon arriving home and it was remarkable. It did what all great wines do when they are initially opened. For 8 minutes it drank out of its mind. Heavenly. It was so refined, so elegant, so pure, with enormous power lurking underneath and it had such length. Oh, that length. It drank like great 1er Cru and even Grand Cru white Burgundy. Then after around 8 minutes it slammed shut, like all great wines do, and it slowly evolved over 2 days open in my fridge. I didn't want to force this wine so had little sips and glasses every 3-4 hours. It is a wine that should be aged. Pierre Berlancourt recommends 10 years and I would agree. There is a lot of material here and it needs time to mellow out. But once it does, the whole experience will be like those 8 minutes. The last sips on day 2 were the most promising since those 8 minutes which leads me to believe this has a long life ahead of it and once mature, will prove to be a monster value and possibly the best ringer of all time. This is very limited.

On my recent trip to France I was visiting the Domaine les Alexandrins in Mercurol in the Northern Rhone and Thomas, the 23 year old "do everything guy" at the estate dynamo said I got a winery in Burgundy for you if you are looking for new estates. He gave me the name. I googled it and emailed my business partner. There was not much info at all. It was a bed and breakfast in Meursault and they made wine. That's all I knew. I was staying in Beaune and made it over there. There was no one there. I took some great macro photos, which you can see on my Instagram in the future.

I was running all around with lots of appointments and driving so I had my business partner shoot them an email. They retuned it after I left Beaune and was in Chablis. My business partner had Pierre Berlancourt send me two bottles of each wine to my hotel in Reims, Champagne. And they got there and I was so happy. Teamwork, perseverance had paid off and I had the wines. Now, I was hoping they would be good. No, I'll admit I was hoping they would be great, as the information they sent in the e-mail was mindboggling as it was fascinating.

Sometimes finding a great winery requires countless emails, phone calls, great grower not having enough wine, missed appointments due to hailstorms, and all kinds of other things that impede the process of buying and selling wine from said winery. But other times it comes because of serendipity, happenstance and perseverance. And that is how Fass Selections came to sell the unique, compelling and brilliant Bourgogne's of Domaine Berlancourt.

2011 Domaine Berlancourt Bourgogne "Les Equinces" - $25.99 ($95.96 4-pack)

2011 Domaine Berlancourt Bourgogne "Les Champans" - $64.99 ($119.98 2-pack) (VERY LIMITED)